


Five Times Tony Was A Proud Dad + The One Time He Was Referred To As Such

by tomkitty



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Dad!Tony, Gen, Tony is a proud dad, obviously it says that in the title lol, teenage kid!peter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 18:32:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11834574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomkitty/pseuds/tomkitty
Summary: Just like the title says, a 5+1 fic about Tony Stark acting like a proud Dad about his not exactly but might as well be adopted son Peter ParkerBased on athis headcanonpost I saw on tumblr.





	Five Times Tony Was A Proud Dad + The One Time He Was Referred To As Such

“Who does he think he is? Spiderman, pfft, he’s just another one of those damn vigilante types. Thinking they’re above the law.”

Tony immediately turned his head in the direction of the voice. It was coming from one of the businessmen that were waiting for their order at a nearby cafe. Tony could have just gotten coffee at the office but he needed to get out for bit, get some fresh air as it were. Now he was half regretting that decision if he had to put up with listening to someone insult Peter.

“He’s doing more harm than good. People like him just need to let the police do their job without getting in the way.” 

Don’t do it Tony, just take a few deep breaths, you’re order is almost ready. No use getting into a fight with some random guy right now.

“It’s pathetic. Probably makes them feel good about themselves. Spiderman is no hero. Just some guy in a costume thinking they can do what they want.” 

That’s it. Tony walked over and glanced at the man’s phone. He had some article up that was talking about Spiderman and how he helped stop a bank robbery. Tony would hear the story from Peter later, in the meantime he had some assholes to deal with.

“I’m sorry were you just talking about Spiderman?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, he-”

“Is a good person and is doing more for his city than you ever will.”

“He’s going above the law and-”

“Is helping people in need. He isn’t the one causing problems, he’s helping solve them, and in the process helping to minimize the consequences of the incidents that he is stopping.”

“Who are you, his dad?”

“No, I’m-”

“Tony? You’re order is ready.” 

Upon hearing his name Tony turned away from the men he was arguing with walked over to the barista. “Thank you,” he said and gave her a pleasant smile. 

“No thank you,” she, Tony glanced at her name tag, Drew replied. 

Tony looked confused for a moment and Drew rushed to continued. “For saying something to those men over there. Working in a cafe like this you tend to hear people talking about current events and there have been a lot of people talking badly about Spiderman. I always want to say something but, working in customer service you can’t do that without potentially getting in trouble so, thank you.”

Tony smiled at her, genuinely, and replied. “Of course, I believe in that Spiderman. He’ll do great things. I just know it.”

If the next day Tony went back to that cafe for lunch and left a ridiculous tip for Drew, well, it was purely by coincidence. 

\----

When Tony showed up to Peter’s Academic Decathlon competition no one was more surprised than Tony. He knew that Peter’s team had made it to the national championship, he had only been planning to call the kid up and congratulate him, but this year’s championship was being held in New Jersey and before he knew it he had gotten into his car and driven down to actually see the kid. 

Tony did his best to blend-in with the crowd, thankfully it wasn’t too hard since he stuck to the back and everyone seemed to be focused on the kids at the front of the room. It was the Super Quiz portion and with each answer that Peter answered Tony couldn’t help the feeling of pride that swelled in his chest. 

At the end of the competition when it was announced that Peter’s school had won Tony cheered and took pictures of the team on stage. When Peter spotted Tony he waved frantically at him, a huge smile on his face. After all was said and done Tony made his way over to Peter and Peter broke away from the group and rushed towards Tony.

“Mr. Stark! What are you doing here?”

“How many times have we been over this huh kid? Call me Tony. And well, I was in the area and thought I’d drive down to see you.”

“How did you know I was even here?” Peter asked.

“You know, I do listen to those messages you leave Happy. You telling him about what you’re doing, like leaving the state for an Academic Decathlon competition, is like telling me.”

“You listen to the messages?” Peter said, his eyes wide in surprise. He knew Happy reported back to Tony but he didn’t think that Tony listened to the messages himself.

“Of course I do. I like keeping up with you and knowing what you’re doing. You don’t leave as much as you used to but, that must mean that you’re having a good time living life. Being a kid. I’m proud of you.”

“You are? Thanks Mr. St- Tony.” Peter was positively beaming now.

“Peter!”

Tony and Peter both turned to the voice and saw Ned scanning the crowd searching for Peter. MJ was standing next to him typing something on her phone.

Peter’s phone pinged then. It was a message from MJ. ‘If you’re not back here in 2 minutes we’re leaving you behind and going to dinner without you.’

“You better get going. Looks like your friends are waiting for you.” Tony said nodding his head towards the group.

“Yeah, yeah right. Thanks, for coming out and seeing me Tony. It uh, it means a lot.” Peter hesitated for a moment and then seemed to steel himself before quickly moving forward and wrapping his arms around Tony in a tight hug. 

The hug caught Tony off guard but he moved an arm up and patted Peter on the back. “Anytime,” Tony said and realized that he meant it. He enjoyed watching Peter compete and would definitely come out and support Peter at any other event that he was participating in.

Peter pulled back and smiled broadly at Tony before running off to join his friends. Tony couldn’t help the fond smile on his face as he watched Peter go.

\----

Sometimes Tony found himself heading out to Peter’s place for a visit. He always called ahead to let Aunt May know, after the first few times he had shown up unannounced he realized that was never a good idea. 

When he arrived May smiled and said, “Hi Tony, Peter’s in his room and dinner will be on in 10. You’ll be joining us.”

“Hi, May. Thank you. I’d love to.”

“It wasn’t a request, but I’m glad you agree. Go on, Peter’s been dying to see you.” May replied before turning to go back into the kitchen.

Tony just smiled and walked over to Peter’s room. The door was slightly ajar and Tony moved to knock when he heard Peter’s voice from inside. 

“Karen can you zoom in closer? Thanks.”

Tony looked into the room and saw Peter sitting at his desk, his Spiderman mask on over his head and his computer, a metal object, and stray wires and tools on the desk in front of him. 

“Okay Karen, are you ready? Good. Here we go.” Peter clicked a button on his computer and watched as it loaded. Soon the metal object on the desk whirred to life and started to skitter around in a circle on the desk.

“He’s alive! Hahaha!” Peter cheered. 

“Nice robot you’ve got there.” Tony said from where he was standing in the doorway. “What is that? A spider?”

“Tony!” Peter exclaimed and turned to look at Tony. “I’m gonna go now Karen. Thanks for your help.” 

Peter nodded and pulled the mast off his head. “You’re here! And yeah, it’s uh. It’s a spider-bot. It’s cool right? Come look.”

“Very cool.” Tony said walking into Peter’s room to take a look at the bot. “And you built him in here?” Tony gestured to the bedroom and Peter nodded.

“Where’d you get the materials?”

“Uh, I may have borrowed parts from other electronic devices.” Tony then noticed the pile of aforementioned devices in various states of disassembly next to Peter’s desk. 

Tony smirked and shook his head. “I can see that.”

“He’s only the first one. I plan on building more, then I’ll have a whole army of spider-bots at my command! I want them to work like a surveillance system. They can get into places I can’t and I can even leave some around the house to keep Aunt May safe.”

“Do you plan to build them all here?”

Peter shrugged. “Well yeah, I still have more spare parts and if I need more I can just go scavenging for some. You know people throw out perfectly useable tech just because it’s out of date? It’s so sad.”

“That seems like a good idea, but how would you like to work in an actual lab? My lab. It has tons of tools and supplies and Karen is even a part of the system so you don’t have to put your mask on to talk to her. What do you say?” 

“Really? You’d let me work in your lab?” Peter asked, excitement all over his face.

“I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it.”

“That would be! I mean! Wow, thank you Tony!” Peter rushed forward and hugged Tony. The kid really was very affectionate and after the first several hugs from Peter, Tony had begun to get used to it. He brought both arms up and wrapped them around Peter’s back, hugging him back just as tight.

“Sure thing Peter,” Tony said before releasing him. “Now come on, your aunt said that dinner would be ready soon. Let’s go see if she needs help.”

\----

Tony still had Peter check in with Happy where he would leave voice messages that Tony would listen to later. Listening to Peter’s messages was always a highlight of Tony’s day because at least now Peter knew that Tony was listening to his messages and therefore was inclined to share more. He was really proud of the kid and loved hearing about all the good he was doing to help in his neighborhood. He also liked hearing about all the day to day life things that Peter did as well. Hearing about what he did at school, what’s going on with his friends, all that normal kid stuff that Tony himself never really got to experience, it made Tony happy to know Peter was living a normal life. 

The alert that Peter had left another message to Happy came through on Tony’s phone and Tony’s face lit up. He was only in his workshop so he listened to the message.

“Hey Happy, hi Tony, it’s Peter. I'm just checking in for the day. There wasn’t much going on in terms of crime or anything like that. I helped a group of kids whose ball got stuck in a fire escape, not too sure how that happened, and just kept an eye out for any suspicious activity but, there was nothing. Oh also I had an idea for the spider-bots that I wanted to run past you but we can talk about that later. School was good. I had an Academic Decathlon meeting after school today and uh- It went well. Really well. You remember MJ? I’ve told you about her. Anyway, I actually asked her out on a date. We’re going to go to the Museum of Natural History on Saturday. I wasn’t sure if she’d want to see a movie or go to dinner so I thought the museum would be nice. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m really hoping it goes well. Okay, bye Happy. Bye Tony.”

A first date huh? Tony looked at the time, it was only early evening, he had time. He decided to call Peter.

Peter picked up on the first ring, his face popping up on Tony’s screen. “Hey Tony!”

“Peter, congrats on asking out MJ. The museum is a good choice for a date spot and there are actually a few restaurants in that area that I could suggest for you to go to in case you guys get hungry. In fact, I’ll just send a list to your phone.”

“Thanks Tony.”

“And uh, hey a word of advice? I know you’re still young and everything but, if you really like this girl well, don’t wait. If the date goes well, and the resulting next few dates go well, let her know how you feel.”

Peter smiled at Tony, “Thank you Tony, really I, it’s nice to have someone to give me advice like this. I mean, Aunt May is great but, it’s nice having more than one person in my corner.

Tony smiled back at Peter. “Anytime. Oh one more thing, what was it that you were saying about the spider-bots?”

\----

Tony was at a gala. What the gala was for he wasn’t sure. He knew it was for SI but the why was currently escaping him. All he knew was that Pepper had shown up at his workshop earlier that day and told him to get ready for the gala so he did. 

He and Pepper were making their rounds, talking to everyone there and thanking them for coming, typical gala talk, when one of the couples they were talking to brought up their son.

“Our Derek just loves SI technology. He finds it absolutely fascinating and because of it he wants to go into computer science and engineering once he graduates high school. He’s quite the young genius.”

Tony’s attention perks up at this. “Oh? That’s great. We could do with more young minds going into those fields. Our children are our future after all. You know my kid, he’s one of the smartest kids you will ever meet. He’s on his school’s Academic Decathlon team and, hold on I actually have a picture…” Tony pulls out his phone and quickly finds the photo he took of Peter and his team at the national championship. “They recently won the national championship.” 

Tony takes a moment to zoom in on the photo so that it’s more focused on Peter. “That’s him. He’s going places you know. With a brain as brilliant as his, how could he not?” Tony is positively beaming, a proud smile on his face. 

“You have a kid?” 

“What?” Tony asks before thinking about what exactly he just said. “Oh, no I don’t. I meant my kid as one of the kids who interned at Stark Industries. He’s not actually mine. He doesn’t even look like me!”

The couple laughs at that because, of course Tony doesn’t have a child, let alone a teenaged one. How could he? With how in the spotlight he is something like that couldn’t have stayed hidden for long.

But huh, there’s an idea…

After the couple Tony and Pepper had been talking to got pulled away he looked over at Pepper. “Hey Pepper can I-”

“No, Tony,” Pepper said, an amused smile on her face as she already knew exactly what he was going to ask.

“But-”

“He already has a legal guardian Tony. You can’t just adopt him.”

Tony frowned a little at that. He knew that and he would never try to take Peter away from his aunt, but this past year had been really eye opening for Tony. He really cared about Peter and yeah, the prospect of having a kid might have terrified him before, too many fears about messing up or being like his own father, but now, he really thinks he’d be able to do it. 

Sure he can’t adopt Peter but, surely he could be a father-like figure in Peter’s life. That is if Peter even wanted that of course. If he didn’t that’s fine. Tony would cope and if Tony began referring to Peter as his son in his head well, no one would have to know.

\----

It’s several weeks after that incident at the gala that it happens. Peter is hanging around in Tony’s workshop, after that first initial offer Tony had been allowing Peter into his lab more and more often, and he’s working on his spider-bots again. He’d been trying to integrate the webshooters into their system so that they could swing and make webs like actual spiders. 

When Tony had asked why, Peter just shrugged his shoulders and said, “because it’d be cool and the spider-bots deserve to have a bit of fun.” Tony had just nodded as his head as his fondness for the boy grew and invited him to work on the bots in his lab since he had better equipment.

“Yes!” Peter cheered as he jumped up from the workbench, his hands thrust into the air in celebration. “Dad! Dad look what I did! I did it!”

Tony’s head snapped up at that and he quickly turned to look at Peter, a look of surprise on his face.

Peter instantly deflated when he realized what he said.

“I mean, sorry, Mr. Stark, no, Tony. I didn’t mean, sorry, it just slipped out. I didn’t, um-” Peter stammered looking extremely embarrassed.

“Hey no, it’s okay.” Tony said rushing to get up and stand in front of Peter. “It’s fine Peter I promise. You can, you can call me dad if you want. I don’t mind”

“Really?” Peter asked. “I mean, it just slipped out. I uh, sometimes refer to you as dad in my head but if it makes you uncomfortable I can just stick to calling you Tony.”

Tony tried and failed to look nonchalant about it but his joy at Peter calling him dad was all too evident on his face. “No, you can call me dad if you want. I already think of you as my son so why don’t we just make it a thing huh?”

A hopeful grin spread on Peter’s face at Tony’s words as he looked at him. “You really mean it?”

“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t mean it.”

Peter hugged Tony then and Tony didn’t even hesitate before wrapping his arms around him.

“Thank you, dad.”

“Anytime, son.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you read this, thank you! I appreciate it!


End file.
